Rahul Dravid celebrates his 49th birthday today. The former Indian captain is one of the legends of the game. His excellence on and off the field is well documented. He played the sport in the right spirit.
There is little that Dravid has done wrong on the field. Even the oppositions watched in awe the way he went about his business. Post-retirement, Dravid took up coaching young turks. He then assumed responsibilities at the NCA. Dravid is a great example of how nice guys also do finish first.
On his birthday, we look at 9 of the lesser-known facts about Rahul Dravid:
#1 A well-educated cricketer:
Dravid completed his schooling at St. Joseph’s Boys High School, Bangalore. He later completed his commerce graduation from St. Joseph Commerce College. Dravid was pursuing his MBA while he got selected to play for the Indian team.
#2 Maharashtrian boy based out of Bengaluru:
Rahul Dravid was born on January 11, 1973, at Indore in India. His mother tongue is Marathi. But Dravid has lived most of his life in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
#3 Wall of nicknames:
Rahul Dravid was nicknamed ‘jammy’ as his father worked in the Kisan jam factory. Dravid later earned popular nicknames. He was called the ‘Mr. Dependable’ and ‘The Wall’.
#4 He missed on debut but later scored!
Rahul Dravid made his Test debut at the iconic Lords Stadium in 1996. He came in to bat at number 7. Dravid narrowly missed out on a century scoring 95. Sourav Ganguly the other debutant went on to score a splendid century. But Dravid finally made it up in 2011. He registered a brilliant century. His name went up the honours board.
#5 World Cup Top-scorer
People often criticized Dravid for his strike rate. He couldn’t make it to the ODI team consistently. Dravid reinvented himself and came back with a bang. He finished as the highest run-scorer in the 1999 ODI World Cup. Dravid smashed 461 runs but ironically didn’t win even a single player of the match award.
#6 He played for Scotland!
Rahul Dravid agreed to play for Scotland as part of an invitation visit. He played 11 ODIs for Scotland scoring 600 runs at an impressive average of 66.66.
#7 MTV youth icon of the year
MTV was India’s number 1 youth channel back in the 2000s. They conferred Rahul Dravid with the ‘Youth Icon of the Year’ award in 2004.
#8 Slew of books written on him
Rahul Dravid has two biographies written on him. The first one is called, Rahul Dravid – A Biography [Vedam Jaishankar ]. Devendra Prabhudesai wrote the other one called, ‘The Nice Guy Who Finished First’.
#9 Century in every Test-playing nation
Rahul Dravid is one of those rare cricketers who has scored a century in every Test-playing nation. He holds the highest average [71.26] among Indian Cricketers in overseas victories.
